Metric system or U.S. Standard?

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Spencer278

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: Vaerilis
Originally posted by: Spencer278
Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
I'm sorry, but I still to this day have no idea how many quarts are in a gallon, how many ounces are in a pound, or exactly how many feet are in a mile.

Metric is simply so much easier to handle...

When was the last time you asked your self how many quarts of gas your car can hold. I know I would ask how much is it going to cost to fill up my car with gas lets say about 10 gallons now I bet I could come up with the cost to fill it up given a price per gallon then you could if you assumed you need about 40 L and give a price per L.

That's easy: Octane 98 costs approx. 1$/l here. 40l = 40$ :D
What a pity we don't use dollar as our currency. And we don't earn enough. And fuel costs so much.
240HUF/l - 960HUF/4l - 9600HUF/40l

Edit: our gas prices are the highest in the area!

Well it no surprise your gas prices are so high your buying 98 octane gas.

 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
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I hate having to buy 2 sets of tools for everything. Just pick one damnit! I prefer metric since it is much easier to do mathamaticly.
 

bandana163

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2003
4,170
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The cheapest one cost about 0.95$, too. Octane 92. The european system differs, though. American 88~European 92-95.
 

Sunner

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It's amazing that some people still think the Imperial system is supperior in any way.
Of course some people will be more comfortable with it, having used it since birth, and hence would prefer to stick with what they know, but ignoring what you know, the Metric system is clearly superior.
As some have already pointed out, try doing some engineering work using Imperial.

Or, maybe we should have one system for each purpose, engineers can keep Metric, people who drink lots of soda keep Imperial, we'll measure gas in "tanks", one tank being the avarge tank capacity between a Ford F-150 and a Civic.
 

Spencer278

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 2002
3,637
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Originally posted by: Sunner
It's amazing that some people still think the Imperial system is supperior in any way.
Of course some people will be more comfortable with it, having used it since birth, and hence would prefer to stick with what they know, but ignoring what you know, the Metric system is clearly superior.
As some have already pointed out, try doing some engineering work using Imperial.

Or, maybe we should have one system for each purpose, engineers can keep Metric, people who drink lots of soda keep Imperial, we'll measure gas in "tanks", one tank being the avarge tank capacity between a Ford F-150 and a Civic.

People have done engineering work with the imperial system don't you remember that mars probe. Working with either type isn't really that difficult if you have a calculator and use only the base units. So everyone should change the untis they use so that engineers don't have to learn a second system which is worse for everyday uses. A tank wouldn't be a very good unit because you might have 1.5 tanks and then you have to deal with fractions.
 

rgwalt

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2000
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Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: rgwalt
ZV- I do have you call you out on your statement that the Fahrenheit scale is more accurate... It really depends on the instrument being used. However, all things being equal, if two instruments are being compared side by side, one measuring F and one measuring C, and they both give the same number of decimal places, the instrument measuring Fahrenheit is more precise.

Ryan
NOWHERE did I say that Fahrenheit was more accurate. I said that it was more PRECISE, with the assumption that the number of decimal places was given.

ZV

Sorry buddy, I meant to say precise instead of accurate.

R

 

rgwalt

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2000
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Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
I'm sorry, but I still to this day have no idea how many quarts are in a gallon, how many ounces are in a pound, or exactly how many feet are in a mile.

Metric is simply so much easier to handle...

8 fl oz to a cup
2 cups to a pint
2 pints to a quart
4 quarts to a gallon

16 oz to a pound

5280 ft to a mile

Get it together... :D

R

 

jacob0401

Platinum Member
Jul 31, 2001
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Metric system is infinitely easier and used in the academic world, but growing up in the US I'm used to using Standard too.
 
May 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
I'm sorry, but I still to this day have no idea how many quarts are in a gallon, how many ounces are in a pound, or exactly how many feet are in a mile.

Metric is simply so much easier to handle...


Heh! Me too, I always thought there were 4 pints to a quart, and then 4 quarts to a gallon...

I try to use metric whenever I can, and of course I get really wierd looks when I say "...yeah, it's 23km that way"

and then I think it's funny that the US system could ever be called "Standard" hah!

 

NeoPTLD

Platinum Member
Nov 23, 2001
2,544
2
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ZV- I do have you call you out on your statement that the Fahrenheit scale is more accurate... It really depends on the instrument being used. However, all things being equal, if two instruments are being compared side by side, one measuring F and one measuring C, and they both give the same number of decimal places, the instrument measuring Fahrenheit is more precise.
Ryan

There is 2.2F change for every degree C changed, so a digital thermometer with 0.1 degree resolution will give finer read outs in fahrenheit mode. But in reality, many digital thermometers with dual unit capability have 1/10 C and 2/5 F minimum resolution.



 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
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ZM, do you think anyone thinks of 2 different things if I say it is 51 or 53 degrees F?
 

Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
19,047
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Originally posted by: AgaBooga
I prefer metric but the god damn school systems make us use the US standard more than metric.... *sigh*

Your school system sucks. 90 percent of what we use is metric here.
 

NeoPTLD

Platinum Member
Nov 23, 2001
2,544
2
81
Originally posted by: rgwalt
Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
I'm sorry, but I still to this day have no idea how many quarts are in a gallon, how many ounces are in a pound, or exactly how many feet are in a mile.

Metric is simply so much easier to handle...

8 fl oz to a cup
2 cups to a pint
2 pints to a quart
4 quarts to a gallon

16 oz to a pound

5280 ft to a mile

Get it together... :D

R


10 fluid ounces of liquid weighs one pound.

How many drams per fluid ounce?
how many pounds per gallon?

The two answers will be very different, yet mean the same thing..

where as in metric the units of density are easily converted back and forth:

g/ml
g/liter
kg/m^3

Something like this is easily done in metric. You'll have to look it up in a book to do this one.


 

Cyberian

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2000
9,999
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Originally posted by: Spencer278
The metric system sucks for measuring most things because it is handicapped by the base 10 stuff where the english system just makes up units that are a conventant length. Like the soda can 12 oz or 355 ml who cares the precision of there soda to 3 siginifiacant figures anyway. The biggest flaw in the metric system is it requires larger number before the unit compared to the english system. Sure the metric system is useful when doing conversion but how often do I do conversions I think never unless it is in a class
How many cubic feet are there in a room that's 11' 5&3/4" X 10' 7&11/16 X 7' 11&3/8" ??

How many cubic meters in a room 3.7M X 3.4M X 2.4M ??
 

ManSnake

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 2000
4,749
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Originally posted by: Cyberian
Originally posted by: Spencer278
The metric system sucks for measuring most things because it is handicapped by the base 10 stuff where the english system just makes up units that are a conventant length. Like the soda can 12 oz or 355 ml who cares the precision of there soda to 3 siginifiacant figures anyway. The biggest flaw in the metric system is it requires larger number before the unit compared to the english system. Sure the metric system is useful when doing conversion but how often do I do conversions I think never unless it is in a class
How many cubic feet are there in a room that's 11' 5&3/4" X 10' 7&11/16 X 7' 11&3/8" ??

How many cubic meters in a room 3.7M X 3.4M X 2.4M ??

Lol, good one :beer:
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
34,834
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I say we use metric for everything, but drop centigrade. It only makes slightly more sense than Fahrenheit. We should use Kelvin for temperature.
 

MAME

Banned
Sep 19, 2003
9,281
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Anyone in Science will agree that metric owns all. Our system should be put out of it's missery

Of course I have no freaking idea what the converstions are, but I'd learn if I had to
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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Metric is so much easier.

But I voted for a little of both.
 

silverpig

Lifer
Jul 29, 2001
27,703
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Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I prefer the English system of measurement. Especially for temperature measurement, more precise. (Note that precision is not a reflection of accuracy, precision is a result of having more available reference points.) Since Fahrenheit has 180 degrees between the freezing and boiling point of water while Centigrade has only 100, Fahrenheit is by definition more precise.

I'll grant that the Metric system is easier, but it is easier in the same way that an automatic transmission is easier than a standard. The automatic is much easier, but the standard is not some incredible paragon of difficulty. In the same way, Metric is easier than English, but English is far from a paragon of difficulty.

ZV

Precision deals with EQUIPMENT, not scale. If you can mark your thermometer accurately to 1 F, then you can mark it accurately to every ~5/9 C. So you mark your C scale in 5/9 of a degree.